June 9, 2015

New greyhounds of the sea

THERE ONCE WAS A TIME when people regarded
the large ocean liners as the greyhounds of the sea. They averaged about 20
knots, those greyhounds. About 480 nautical miles in a day. Who would have
thought, in those days, that one man, alone in a sailboat, could cover 545
miles in 24 hours — an average speed of 22.7 knots? That’s precisely what
Francois Gabart did in the last Vendée Globe race.

Gabart was sailing a 60-foot monohull called Macif.

I have long since stopped boggling at the
accomplishments of long-distance sailboat racers. There seems to be no shortage
of brave men and women willing to risk their lives in high-tech sailboats with
hulls shaped like flat irons, and every four years they set sail from Sables
d’Olonne in France in boats with canting keels and moveable ballast tanks,
sizzling off the top of swells at speeds up to (and sometimes exceeding) 30
knots as they make perilous passages through the chilly wilderness of the
Southern Ocean.

The next Vendée Globe is about 18 months
away, and already the prospective contestants are signing up, launching new
boats, and refurbishing some that have done the race more than once before.

Here, for the record, is what these contestants
will have to do to win. Here are the statistics for Francois Gabart and Macif in the 2012/2013 running of the
race:

In other words, around the world in about 78
days. It’s an extraordinary achievement, particularly to those of us who are
content to plod alongat 5 knots. But Gabart and his fellow professional
competitorsare extraordinary sailors.
They are the Supermen and Superwomen of the sport — but backed by big money, of
course. They are a breed apart from us amateurs who literally do mess around in
boats. But I have to say I don’t envy them. There are easier ways to earn a
living and probably more fulfilling ways of enjoying the gentle art of sailing.

Today’s
Thought

Sooner or
later . . . you are going to be looking at God saying, “We’re going to be lucky
if we get out of here.” Your life is going to be in front of you and then you
are going to realize that you’d rather be grocery shopping.

— Ed Barry, rock climber, Newsweek, 1 Oct 84

Tailpiece

They tell me that Viagra is now available in
tea bags.
It doesn't enhance your sexual performance but it does stop your cookie going
soft.

(Drop by every
Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)